Belonging: Point Two

    2.    POINT

Throughout Dolores’ life she’s reached out to people only to be turned away. When her parents divorced, she had to move to her grandmother’s home, leaving her best friend Jeanette behind. The children at her school teased her, and a neighbour that offered advice and a ride home from school took advantage of her. After her mother’s death, Dolores stepped out of her shell briefly when the man installing wallpaper and his wife and daughter slept over; they were kind to Dolores and she felt like she belonged; unfortunately she never saw them again. In college she met an overweight woman like herself, Dottie, but after a lesbian experience, Dolores was upset and killed Dottie’s fish before running away. When she ended up in the mental institution and opened up to her therapist, Dr. Shaw, she became a new woman and sought companionship. Leaving therapy prematurely to pursue her college obsession, Dolores felt at peace - but it was short lived. A failed marriage allowed Dolores to move back to her grandmother’s home where she rekindled friendships with a neighbour and school counsellor; also sparking a romance with a man named Thayer.

        PROOF

“Dr. Shaw was the first parent who hadn’t left me.” (Lamb 271)

        COMMENT

The therapy sessions Dr. Shaw guided Dolores through was essentially rebirth. He became her mother and raised her properly; he turned Dolores into a child and made her into a new woman. Allowing Shaw to do this helped Dolores open up to people and it was the first step in her personal liberation.

 

“Gran Torino” depicted redemption and personal liberation in a simpler manner; an unhappy man limited by his own ignorance is pursued by a Hmong family where he ultimately finds a sense of belonging. However, Wally Lamb portrays his character Dolores in “She’s Come Undone” as a struggling adolescence who endures many trials and tribulations whilst opening up to people and continuously being shut down. Eventually Dolores finds happiness once she learns to love and accept herself.